Terror suspect's father reacts to arrest

By TRACY VEDDER and LINDSAY COHEN, KOMO NEWS

Published 6:48 pm, Friday, June 24, 2011

Photo: AP

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

This is a 2004 photo provided by the Washington State Department of Corrections showing Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, of Seattle. Davis, and Walli Mujahidh, also known as Frederick Domingue Jr., of Los Angeles, were arrested Wednesday night, June 22, 2011. They men were arrested at a warehouse garage when they arrived to pick up machine guns to use in an alleged terror plot.

This is a 2004 photo provided by the Washington State Department of Corrections showing Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, of Seattle. Davis, and Walli Mujahidh, also known as Frederick

A video clip posted on YouTube showed the SeaTac man ranting against the U.S. military for its actions in Islamic countries.

"They're going to try to disintegrate the religion and try to degrade us," Abdul-Latif was seen saying. "Stand up with sword, tongue, and at the very least, hate in our heart. What is going on with the Muslim uma?"

Federal agents say it was a similar rage that drove Abdul-Latif to want to attack a Seattle military recruiting office.

The allegations are especially hard to take for the suspect's father, as both father and son had served in the U.S. Navy.

"I'm an American, and I put my time in for my country. And now I hear terrorist things, and that's not really good," the suspect's father said. "I pray for him, you know, and hope this is all just a big misunderstanding."

Davis, who lives out of state, said he hadn't spoken to his son in about eight months. He expressed concern for his grandson, Khalid.

With Abdul-Latif now behind bars, there's still shock at his SeaTac home. Abdul-Latif's 3-year-old son hasn't been able to eat or sleep, according to the boy's mother.

"He's saying, 'Daddy. Daddy,"' said Abdul-Latif's wife, Binta Moussa-Davis. "I said, 'Sorry, brother. Sorry, son. Sorry, no more dad for the rest of your life. No more him.''"

Moussa-Davis said she and her husband hoped to have more children in the near future.

From Joseph Davis to Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif

So how did Joseph Anthony Davis become accused terrorist Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif? It started with his conversion to Islam in Washington state's prison system.

Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh, aka Frederick Domingue Jr., 32, of Los Angeles, were both charged in federal court Thursday with terrorism and conspiracy to attack the Military Entrance Processing Station in Seattle.

The two planned to fire machine guns and toss grenades into the facility on a day and time when it would cause maximum casualties, according to court documents filed in the case.

The plan was hatched after Abdul-Latif spent two years in state prisons at Walla Walla and at Stafford Creek Corrections Center near Aberdeen, authorities say.

But if the initial seeds of the alleged terror plot against Seattle's military recruiting station were sewn back then, state prison authorities say they had little reason to track that.

State Deputy Prison Director Dan Pacholke says there were no red flags about Adbul-Latif's behavior or his conversion to Islam.

"So much of what we do is track negative behavior," says Pacholke.

He says prisons act on specific violent behavior or threats -- not simply participation in a specific religious faith.

"If we're relayed intelligence from different groups that would indicate there's a problem with a certain group or a certain individual then we can pay more attention to it," he explains.

But he says the Corrections Department hasn't seen any prison-grown concerns related to Islam or any other faith-based group.

Records show Abdul-Latif spent the first year of his prison sentence in 2002 inside the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla -- one of the state's most secure prisons.

According to the state Department of Corrections, that's where he assaulted a non-uniformed kitchen supervisor -- and ended up in maximum security.

It's also where some of the state's most hardened gang members are sent. As one guard says, "When you start working up here you have to stay on your toes all of the time."

It was either at Walla Walla or later at Stafford Creek where Abdul-Latif converted to Islam.